4 Marketing Myths That Prevent Many Businesses From Thriving

Isn’t it amazing how many sources of inspiration and advice there are out there to help online business owners achieve success?

But as noted entrepreneur Melinda Emerson writes here, the most important thing you need as a business owner is a vision, and that vision should never be compromised by anything that doesn’t conform to your long-term goals.

That’s why it can be dangerous to spend so much time listening to experts, because you can become paralyzed, unable to make a decision on what strategies you will employ.

And that brings us to today’s subject, which is about how some of the myths or truths that you hear about marketing may end up doing more harm than good.

Many business owners have accepted the following four marketing myths as cast-iron truths, but a deeper examination reveals that they can actually hold you back from achieving your company’s goals.

1. SEO Is the Most Important Marketing Strategy

Any responsible online business owner is aware that search engine optimization (SEO) is a key aspect of increasing search engine rankings.

But what’s become a myth is that SEO is the end-all-be-all of your marketing strategy, and that’s just not true.

In fact, this myth can lead you into believing that mastering SEO will automatically boost your profits, because of the increased number of visitors to your site.

But here’s the thing.

Even the best SEO strategy will only drive traffic to your site.

It’s what happens after visitors land on your site that counts.

And that means that conversion is actually a bigger factor in your company’s success than SEO.

Yes, getting users to sample your site is huge, but if you can’t transform those users into long-term clients, then what’s the point?

SEO is a useful tool in your arsenal, but conversion is more important, and conversion rates have everything to do with well-organized, clear and actionable content.

In fact, the very factors that increase conversion actually help SEO, so in many ways it all begins with ensuring that your content is first-rate.

2. Great Content Will Sell Itself

Look, there is no question that your content – which includes product pages, landing pages, videos, etc. – is one of the most important aspects of your online business, but you cannot rely solely on that content to drive visitors to your site.

Yes, great content will sell itself, but…only after you’ve maximized that content in such a way that people know it’s there.

And that’s true even if you are running an SEO campaign, because as we’ve already seen SEO is just another piece of your marketing puzzle.

The myth that “great content will sell itself” is only true if you provide continuous reasons for visitors to engage with your products and services.

That means offering new products and services as often as possible, and persuading users to make a purchase by offering incentives such as discounts, free shipping, 30-day returns and two-for-one deals.

The damage of this particular myth is that it can lull business owners into believing that all that’s necessary for a company to thrive is creating great content and waiting for clients to find them.

You have to be active at all times in promoting your business, whether that means creating content that has elements that can go viral, or offering products and services that are of better quality and priced cheaper than that of your competitors.

3. Fill a Niche Market

One of the other persistent marketing myths is that business owners should find a “hole” to fill when starting their companies.

In other words, this strategy is all about identifying a niche that isn’t being filled, and filling it with your products and services.

But the truth is, your job as a business owner is to create the need in your consumers, not fill a need that they may not even have.

Marketing is all about convincing your targeted consumers that what you’re offering is what they want and need.

Yes, you’ve targeted those consumers for a reason; whether it’s income level, spending habits or some other main factor, but filling a niche market should never be your driving motivation.

Instead, your marketing strategy should always be about offering products and services that provide value to your clients, whether that value is determined by higher quality, lower prices or a more convenient way in which to acquire what you’re selling.

4. High Bounce Rate Means Your Business Is In Trouble

A Bounce Rate is an analytics tools that measures how many visitors came to your site and left without clicking to any page other than your landing page.

So if a visitor arrives at your landing page and never clicks to another page on your site, that visitor would register as a 100 percent Bounce Rate.

This can certainly be a valuable tool in learning how to adjust your conversion rate strategy, but it can also be misleading, because a high Bounce Rate can mean many things.

For example, if your landing page contains actionable information such as a toll-free contact number, the fact that a visitor didn’t click to another page doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she didn’t convert by calling in an order or visiting your brick-and-mortar (if applicable)

What you have to keep in mind is that Bounce Rates don’t always give a full picture of what a user did on your site.

As SEO marketing expert Michael Gray advises in this useful piece, a high Bounce Rate coupled with a high on-site time could very well mean that visitors are finding your landing page content very useful.

This is especially true if your landing page is alive with information that could lead to a conversion in a way that isn’t measurable by a visitor clicking to another page on your site.

Reading Between the Lines

While each of these myths has some element of truth that may be applicable to your business, it’s important to understand the areas in which they could lead your company astray.

Your goal as a business owner is to create great content and market that content in the most effictive way that convinces consumers to visit your site. But the key is conversion, and that’s why it’s so important that you offer something better and more attractive than that of your competitors.

If you have more questions about maximizing your marketing strategies and understanding which ones will work best for your business, sign up for your free newsletter today. This gives you access to useful content that can help your company achieve its goals.